The Story of Igor and the Million-Dollar Socks
In the year 1998, a hyperactive child named Igor joined our community. His inexhaustible energy required constant effort to channel his enthusiasm into constructive activities. To encourage and reward him for his efforts, we devised a rewards system: Igor would receive coins for each completed task.
With great dedication, Igor began to collect these coins, carefully storing them in a little bag that he jealously guarded inside a safe. Every day, during the school break, he would go with trepidation to the safe, take out his coins, and scatter them on the table, contemplating them with a satisfied smile for long minutes.
One day, while he was engrossed in this ritual counting, Igor looked at me with hopeful eyes and asked, “Is it a long way to reach a million?” With a reassuring smile, I replied that with his perseverance and dedication, he would surely reach his goal. Encouraged, Igor put his coins back with renewed vigor and continued to accumulate them day after day, asking me the same question every now and then with a hint of trepidation.
One day, Igor arrived in an unusual hurry. As usual, he asked to open the safe to admire his treasure, but this time, he grabbed the bag and vanished into thin air for the rest of the day. Worried, we searched everywhere for him, but Igor only returned late at night. His unusual behavior led us to believe that he had used the money inappropriately.
That same evening, absorbed in the many daily activities, I completely forgot about my birthday. Entering the dining room, I was pleasantly surprised: the lights were off and not working. I thought it was just another breakdown due to the age of the building. But suddenly, the lights came on and the children surrounded me with enthusiasm to celebrate my birthday!
As I cut the cake surrounded by smiles and well wishes, Igor approached me with a sad expression and said, “I’m sorry, I wanted to give you something special, but with the money I had I could only buy this.” And he handed me a pair of socks.
I have carefully kept those socks until today. I call them “the million-dollar socks,” which nobody has, because they represent for me the invaluable worth of love, generosity, and purity of heart of Igor. In his eyes, those socks represented the most he could offer, and for this reason, in my eyes, they are worth more than a million dollars.